Help with my yardscaping plans?

[mbryson]

Not really yardscaping but a fun milestone as they are likely putting up trusses today? Took some pics when I got home from Missoula last night.

Garage view from the 2 car side.

Front view. I hope I get to keep these tall ceilings!

Trusses that need to get out of the road

Rear garage door and RV pad in the snow.

 

[mbryson]

More not really yardscaping but still fun to see progress.

12' high garage ceiling. Not a bad thing at all.

 

[Pile of parts]

Nice! I'd have them open up that door height as tall as you can get.

 

[rholbrook]

Nice! I'd have them open up that door height as tall as you can get.

Great piece of advice there, especially since you will have the room. I wish I would have put in two, two car garages instead of a two car and a single.

 

[kmboren]

Also while they are framing have them do horizontal 2x4s so you can tie your toilet paper and towel bars to them so they don't pull through the drywall. Also if you plan on hanging any heavy clocks or pictures.

 

[N-Smooth]

Also while they are framing have them do horizontal 2x4s so you can tie your toilet paper and towel bars to them so they don't pull through the drywall. Also if you plan on hanging any heavy clocks or pictures.

you're being too aggressive with your toilet paper and towels

 

[mbryson]

Also while they are framing have them do horizontal 2x4s so you can tie your toilet paper and towel bars to them so they don't pull through the drywall. Also if you plan on hanging any heavy clocks or pictures.

Before they sheetrock, I plan to do a bit of this. Hadn’t thought of doing it on the toilet paper rolls but we’ve had issues with towel racks especially in guest baths in past homes.

 

[SLC97SR5]

Maybe you've been watching them but there are a few good threads on Pirate regarding hot tips on house and shop building.

 

[Mouse]

12ft ceiling is the minimum height for most lifts. It will be tight, but it will work.

 

[mbryson]

More updates but no pics. They may be done framing by the end of the week? They are just finishing the sheeting on the roof. I think that will be done today? There’s a few closets and such to make adjustments to and a door into the basement to get rid of that we nixed on the plans that got out in.

I’m assuming roofing would come next along with more rough plumbing? Not sure if windows and exterior doors will come before electrical ?

Nice! I'd have them open up that door height as tall as you can get.

That’s a 9’ door. I realize I could go higher but didn’t. There’s a couple faux paux on our final signed plans. The two single doors are 9’ and the bigger 20’ door is 8’. Kind of dumb but we signed off on it.

They also made a landing in the stairs going to the basement. Surprise! We were more concerned (perhaps distracted) about width/depth of rooms, the walkout basement that would have had stairs up and out of the basement to the ground level and some of the door swings within other parts of the house to catch the 8’ garage door and the stair landing. The stair landing isn’t a bad thing but not what we wanted. They did that so the stairs don’t jut out into the basement room (they do by one stair even now) due to the basement being a 9’ ceiling. Seems like that’s a compromise that had to be made due to the ceiling height?

My Super Duty will fit under the 8’ door pretty easily. (I still need to measure that though). I think it will be ok but I’m not fond of us missing that 8’ door

Great piece of advice there, especially since you will have the room. I wish I would have put in two, two car garages instead of a two car and a single.

I still have room for an outbuilding if the 1200 sq ft garage isn’t enough and I can scrounge up the funds. I truly want to pay off the house before I do anything like that though. We plan to be pretty aggressive on that.

Regarding the two full width doors, we just didn’t have the width on the lot to go wider without compromising the living space. Well, we do but I wanted a decent width RV pad to make backing trailers and such easier. I have 15’ by plan and actually about 16+’ in reality. We haven’t figured out where the house was shrunk so I wonder if we only have 7’ on the north side? I’m ok with that but code is 8’. Not sure if we are 8’ or not?

 

[Bart]

Looks like it's going to be an incredible house and bonus that you have room for trailer parking and possibly a shop someday. One thing that they missed on our house was a vent for the microwave. Yes, you can vent them out the front, but it would be better to go through roof.

 

[mbryson]

I did just confirm with the contractor that all doors are upgraded to 8' rather than 7'. Forgive my confusion but after thinking about it, I think all my homes/garages have had 7' doors. I thought the 8' door would be pretty nice. I think they'll be at worst, OK. Not sure if I'd want, or what I'd want a '9 or 10' or 11' door for? I don't see me trying to fit an RV in the garage and am not sure what else I'd purchase that would be taller than a slightly lifted Super Duty? (watch those be famous last words?) If I had an RV, I think I'd want a 14'ish door with about a 16-18' ceiling?

Good point on the vent for the microwave. We do have an "in wall" microwave/stove with a vent. We've got some fancy hood for over the range that we paid way to much money for (but was a "must have")

 

[BCGPER]

Marc, FWIW. All my garages have been 8’ doors and I’ve owned some pretty tall trucks. I’ve never needed any taller doors. Plus, you’ll be able to get the openers for a lot less money than the 10’ openers.
On the subject of openers, steer clear of the Ryobi brand. I love all of the features, and they are the quietest opener I’ve ever owned, but they’ve been one problem after another since I installed them a year ago. Hopefully they’ll completely die prematurely so I can get something more dependable.

I did just confirm with the contractor that all doors are upgraded to 8' rather than 7'. Forgive my confusion but after thinking about it, I think all my homes/garages have had 7' doors. I thought the 8' door would be pretty nice. I think they'll be at worst, OK. Not sure if I'd want, or what I'd want a '9 or 10' or 11' door for? I don't see me trying to fit an RV in the garage and am not sure what else I'd purchase that would be taller than a slightly lifted Super Duty? (watch those be famous last words?) If I had an RV, I think I'd want a 14'ish door with about a 16-18' ceiling?

Good point on the vent for the microwave. We do have an "in wall" microwave/stove with a vent. We've got some fancy hood for over the range that we paid way to much money for (but was a "must have")

 

[mbryson]

Good thoughts BC. Your thoughts and mine seem to align quite often, I'm just further behind

I like the outhouse in front. Could be pretty handy. Actually this pic is just showing that 95+% of the framing is taken care of. Looks a bit like a house.

Here's my cool RV pad with the anchor of the fire hydrant in the picture for reference. I think that area will work out ok. Still not 100% what to put there but there are some interesting ideas.

 

[BCGPER]

BTW, make sure your new homeowners insurance knows there’s a hydrant on the property. It’ll save you a few bucks, at least in my case it did.

Good thoughts BC. Your thoughts and mine seem to align quite often, I'm just further behind

I like the outhouse in front. Could be pretty handy. Actually this pic is just showing that 95+% of the framing is taken care of. Looks a bit like a house.

Here's my cool RV pad with the anchor of the fire hydrant in the picture for reference. I think that area will work out ok. Still not 100% what to put there but there are some interesting ideas.

 

[mbryson]

Pretty happy I got concrete cuts rather than the normal joints. They are not real wide and kind of ideal for what I plan to do in the space. The back door to the garage is 9' wide by 8' tall. The garage narrows a little where the cantilever comes into the space. I get an office out of it so I can't really complain. I do plan to put all my long "stock" from projects on a rollaway cart under that overhang. I'll steal some stainless panels from work for the stock and the cart to bounce against the walls.





Back to the Yardscaping plans. Here's the view from our back window into the backyard. A forklift tagged my closer tree. It's kind of listing about 7-10* now. Not sure if should try to right it by pulling it back to straight of just leave it and assume it will naturally correct? I don't think Juniper trees really grow fast so who knows



We're trying out exterior house paint colors on the shed (that seems to be listing to the north in this picture? It's been 100% level---maybe I have an unattached panel leaning up against it making things look pretty funny?). I think we're going for the furthest north color called "smokey blue" or something fancy for the house color. My wife wants the far left color but I mentioned that it was kind of feminine and I wasn't a fan. I won't have sex for a year now, but at least I'll have a better color house

 

[Hickey]

I like the two colors on the right. The far left color is too powder blue.

 

[johngottfredson]

As an arborist as well as a landscape architect, few things bother me more than how cavalier construction dudes are with hitting trees with equipment. Replacement value on a juniper of that maturity is maybe $8k? (ie, if you paid someone to find a tree of that species and size and got them to successfully install it, how much would that cost you?) Yet, they probably didn’t tag any $8k trucks on the job site so hard the trucks listed over 7’...

Whenever I manage a project with existing mature trees I make sure to let the GC know in writing at the beginning how much I value the trees and that he is financially responsible for any damage, so he’s incentivized to communicate appropriately with all his subs.

Anyway.....was the ground all saturated when the tree was hit? That’s some serious trauma to the root system to get ripped out of its position like that. You don’t want to just yank it back the other way, that could double down on the root damage/tree stress. If you’re determined to straighten it, I would essentially create a root ball by digging down around the drip line of the tree 2’ deep, and undercutting it where possible. That way when you pull it back straight the as much roots as possible come with it. Then backfill with sandy loam and stake the tree. Tree might slowly die either way, unfortunately... construction can be pretty hard on trees, turns out they don’t like heavy machinery driving all over their delicate feeder roots. So any additional trauma like this can be hard to bounce back from.

 

[zmotorsports]

I like the color of the shed but I'm not one for vibrant colors on a house and prefer more earth tones.

The floor and progress looks great. Hopefully the warmish weather has been allowing the contractors to keep plugging along uninterrupted.

Mike

 

[mbryson]

Just looking at grass calculations. Looks like I have just under 8k square ft of lawn according to my Orbit sprinkler plot planner http://www.design.orbitonline.com/plans . (holy hell, I need a riding mower?) The question of the morning is sod vs seed. Seed is about $50-80. Sod can't compete with that on price but the convenience factor is pretty high. I will need a few pallets of sod to get my dog a place to poop while the grass comes in.